George e



G. E. WARREN.

METHOD OF CUTTING HEEL LIFT STOCK.

APPLICATION FILED MAR. 5,19I9.

1 ,32 1 1 69. I Patented N (W. 11, 1919.

Fig.1.

Fig.2.

UNiT n s rnis PAT NT oFEmE.

GEORGE E. WARREN, or swamrsoorr, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR 'ro UNITED SHOE MACHINERY CQRPORATION, or PATERSON, NEW JERSEY, A CORPORATION OF NEW JERSEY.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, GEORGE E. WARREN, a citizen of the United States, residing at Swampscott, in the county of Essex and State of Massachusetts, have invented cer tain Improvements in Methods of Cutting Heel-Lift Stock, of which the following description, in connection with the accompanying drawings, is a specification, like reference characters on the drawings indi cating like parts in the several figures.

This invention relates to methods for economical production of articles, such as heel lifts, from sheet material. In some inclustries such, for example, as those relating to certainbranches of rubber goods manufacture, economy in cutting out the articles is of minor importance because the scrap goes directly back into stock in the same mill and, with small depreciation, is worked over again into sheet material. In other, industries such as heel manufacture, conditions are radically different because the scrap, which usually runs from 20% to 25%, is worth little or nothing to ship back to the leather-board mill. This fact gives economic importance to improvements that will reduce the waste While maintaining approXi mately the same labor cost. The method devised by this invention has this economic advantage for an object.

Heels are built in difierent sizes to go on the several sizes of shoes, heels for mens shoes being usually built in three sizes, and when the leather-board lifts are cut from strips it is one practice to cut the strips large enough to produce all the sizes of lifts, while the other practice is to strip the stock into widths suitable for each size of lift. The former practice involves an obvious waste of stock and the latter practice causes confusion and additional labor cost in storing and handling a multiplicity of widths of strips. The present invention aims to eliminate the disadvantages of both said practices while conserving their advantages and also adding an economy of stock peculiar. to this method. To this end this invention contemplates the grouping of various sizes of dies into pairs the length of whlch pairs Wlll be substantially uniform; cutting sheet stock into strips of uniform width corresponding to the substantially uniform lengths of the pairs of dies; and then dieing out the required various pieces Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Nov. 11, 1919.

Application filed March 5, 1919; Serial No. 280,747.

of stock from such uniform strips by the repeated application of pairs of dies posi tioned transversely of the strip; r

In the accompanying drawings,

Figure l isa plan View of a strip of material with dies of different sizes, indicated diagrammatically in place on said strip; an

Fig. 2 is a similarviewof a strip of the same width as that shown in Fig. 1 with dies of. the same size indicated diagrammatically in cutting position on said strip.

It will be observed that Figs. 1 and 2 illustrate the cutting of three sizes of heel lifts from the same width of strip. In Fig. l a large die 1 and a small die 3 are combined breast to breast into a double die having the breast cutting member common to both dies. In Fig. 2 two intermediate size dies 2, 2 are combined into a double die. The combined length of dies 1 and 3 is substantially equal to that of dies 2 and 2. When more than three sizes of pieces are required the same principle is followed of combin ing dies into pairs having asnearly as possible the same over-all length as that of other combinations of dies. The stock is then all stripped to a width corresponding to this same over-all length and all sizes of pieces are cut from the same width of strip. In this way the advantages of both prior practices are conserved and their disadvantages escaped. The lifts may be cutdown through the dies and led into separate chutes so that sizes do not become mixed.

In cutting heel stock by automatic machinery such as is now used, and which is shown in application of W. C. Baxter, Serial No. 13,673, filed March 11, 1915, it is important to provide for the progressive disposal'of the scrap because its accumulation at the die would quickly clog the machine. It is therefore the practice to cut the strip wide enough to provide an adequate con nectcr of the scrap running the length of the sheet. An advantage incident to the practice of this invention when a smalland a larger diea-re combined into a double die is that the scrap l left by the small die serves as an adequately strong connector to lead away the weakly joined pieces of scrap 5 left by the large die and closer cutting is practical in this respect. Moreover, by this method of positioning dies there are only two margins 6, 6 of scrap for two dies while with a single die there are two for each die, one at the breast and one at the rear end of the die. Furthermore, the strong portion of scrap lbetween the cuts of the small die prevents the dies from running, or the stock from sliding under the die, and makes it practical to eliminate waste by close cutting, as indicated at 5, at the widest part of the large die. There is apparently a slight offset to these economies because the width of the scrap 4 between the cuts by the small die is greater than would be necessary if only small lifts were being out. It is found, however, that if the different sizes of dies are properly combined there will seldom be in the total length of a strip a wastage which would have permitted the cutting of an additional lift had small lifts been cut as close together as is considered practical.

Having explained the nature of this invention and described how it may be practised, I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States:

1. That improvement in methods of cutting sheet stock into blanks which consists in grouping dies of different sizes to produce pair of dies of substantially uniform length, cutting sheet stock into strips of a width corresponding to the length of said pairs of dies and cutting up the strip into lifts by the use of pairs of dies arranged transversely of the strip.

That improvement in methods of cutting heel lift stock which consists in combining a large size die and a small size die breast to breast into a double die and com bining dies of other sizes into a double die of substantially the same length as that produced by the first-mentioned combination, cutting heel lift stock into uniform strips of a width corresponding to the length of said double dies, and producing from said uni form strips the plurality of sizes of lifts contemplated by the several sizes of dies by use of said double dies arranged transversely of the strip,

3. That improvement in methods of producing a plu *ality of sizes of pieces of work which consists in combining large and small dies into double dies of substantially uniform length, cutting sheet stock into strips of uniform width corresponding to the length of said double dies, and presenting the double dies transversely to the strip for the cutting operation.

at. That improvement in methods of cutting heel lift stock which consists in combining a large die and a small die breast to breast to form a double die, regulating the feed of stock so as to leave little or no waste between the widest parts of the lifts cut by the larger die cutting pieces by repeated applications of the die, and utilizing the con-v nector constituted by the waste between the lifts cut by the small die to clear the waste progressively from the dies.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification.

GEORGE E. WVARREN.

Eopies 02% this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents, Washington. D. 0. 

